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IntroductionHey guys,
I'm proud to present to you something we've been working on for the last couple of months called ODIN Tracker

We hope you enjoy the read and we would love to hear your feedback (if any) either here on the forums or via one of our various methods of contact listed below.

OverviewODIN Tracker is a UE4 Plugin that greatly increases workflow efficiency in-editor when it comes to using both Source Control and Project Management Software/Services i.e. a tool that does the job quickly and hopefully annoyance-free as to allow an artist, designer or other to get back to what he/she does best, which is to create magic
​
After all,
Both you and they don’t really want to be paid to fiddle around with Source Control and Project Management Software/Services any longer than is absolutely necessary…

​Product SummaryThe ODIN Tracker UE4 Plugin has the following sub-modules:

We have plans for both an Offline Mode which will be partially completed in the 1.0 release with the remaining features being added in 1.1 through to 2.x and features to support running the plugin at run-time within your game for QA and Alpha/Beta Testers to have access to with included granular permission settings to manage QA, Private, and Public Alpha/Beta Tester submission access rights.

We are also looking at supporting a 3D Space Issue/Task placement with the UE4 Editor Viewport that would include:

One of our most requested features was what is now ODIN Capture of UE4 Blueprint Node Networks (ODIN-47) which allows you to take full resolution screenshots of entire Blueprints OR make use of the selective capture of BP Nodes feature for if you only wish to partially share an entire BP system.

Spoiler:

(High Res Source - the above embedded image is from Imgur which has bad compression)

For example this captured image using ODIN Capture is at a resolution of 5556 x 4680 & you can see how many screenshots were taken and stitched together based off our toggle debugging tool (in orange/yellow) which we will leave in as an optional feature to turn ON/OFF under ODIN Settings for you guys to play around with

(High Res Source - the above embedded image is from Imgur which has bad compression)

Here's another example of an even higher resolution image captured with ODIN Tracker and which processed in under a second with a perfectly crisp image with no noticeable artifacts.

ODIN Capture also has a post-capture image/video/GIF editing window in-engine which allows you to make edits such as adding Blur Fields, Annotations, etc to certain areas of your captured Blueprint image or engine window.

Current Blur Mode is Pixelated and we may add additional Blurring methods at a later date and/or expose the nodes necessary for end-users to easily add their own custom blurring options to ODIN Capture as well

The other 2 options which come to mind are a Gaussian (Smooth) Blur and a Hexagonal Blur

ODIN Tracker Version 1.1 | Product Service Update 1 | [UNRELEASED] | Up-to-date as of March 18, 2017.ODIN Tracker Version 2.x | Long-term features that couldn't make it into 1.x | [UNRELEASED] | Up-to-date as of March 18, 2017.ODIN Tracker Version "SomedayMaybe" | Features, Improvements & Bugfixes on the backburner | [UNRELEASED] | Up-to-date as of March 18, 2017.

FAQ[Reserved for popular questions asked here + elsewhere which will be posted anonymously and answered by us here for everyone to see]

Spoiler:

Q: I hate using Project Management/Tracking Solutions such as JIRA/Other and Version/Source Control Systems such as SVN/Perforce/Git/Other, how will your ODIN Tracker UE4 Plugin be any different?

​A: We understand your pain and this is actually how ODIN Tracker was born initially due to our own internal development teams struggling to manage primarily the artists from submitting incomplete issue/task reports for their work because of being unable to fully grasp the systems and/or wanting to just get back to work on their artwork ASAP.

We will be creating both automated and step-by-step systems which can be completely customized by the end-user and not even require opening Unreal Engine 4 to create workflow and issue/task submitting templates.

We do this by creating externally accessible data in the form of .XML and which we will be developing a separate and free UE4 Parser Plugin that we will not only bundle with ODIN Tracker but also make open-source for the public on GitHub/Other to help expand the functionality and supported formats (.txt, .md, etc) to the benefit of the community as a whole.Q: What kind of improvements can I expect to see with my workflow when using ODIN Tracker?

​A: We are working towards making sure that all major workflow transitions within the ODIN Tracker UE4 Plugin take 30 seconds or less though we are shooting for 15-5 seconds in most instances.Q: I have an indie development team of 6-10+ who are on a shoestring budget, do I have to purchase an individual license for each member of my team if we want to purchase the Advanced Functionality version of your UE4 ODIN Tracker Plugin?

A: We feel your pain and that is why both the basic and advanced functionality versions of the plugin will work perfectly side-by-side as to stay competitive with the indie development market.

So if only 2 out of 6 of your development team need access to the Advanced Functionality version of the ODIN Tracker UE4 Plugin than instead of paying $39.95 to $59.95 X 6 = $239.95 to $359.95, you would only pay $39.95 to $59.95 X 2 = $79.95 (SAVING $160.00!) to $119.95 (SAVING $240.00!).Q: Will upgrading to the latest version of ODIN Tracker cost me money?

​A: All minor changes and bug fix releases for ODIN Tracker will be free for 1.x although we will most likely charge for major releases (2.x etc) with an offered discount of between 30% to %80 (may vary per major release) for existing 1.x customers.

@Raool will do, we are just preparing some new screenshots and/or GIFs as the ones we currently have are outdated however I might just attach some of those for the time being so we at least have something visual to show

Video(s) / Trailer(s) will probably not be made until post-release of v0.4+ as we feel the images and GIFs we will be providing will provide more than enough insight into ODIN Tracker for the time being.

We've been building a feature similar to this in UE4 but waaaaaaay more advanced and we would love to hear your feedback on what ideas you may have for improving what you see in this video below for use in UE4

What we are currently looking at when supporting a 3D Space Issue/Task placement feature within the UE4 Editor Viewport:

ODIN Tracker is a UE4 Plugin that greatly increases workflow efficiency in-editor when it comes to using both Source Control and Project Management Software/Services i.e. a tool that does the job quickly and hopefully annoyance-free as to allow an artist, designer or other to get back to what he/she does best, which is to create magic

ODIN Tracker is a suite of tools including ODIN Capture which allows you to capture various sections of the UE4 Editor (including Blueprint Nodes) at full and scaled (up & down) resolution images, GIFs and videos.

ODIN Capture also includes a post-capture editor built directly in UE4 where you can add annotations, blurring of sensitive data (as shown under Feature Showcases), and the ability to then save that edited image/GIF not only to your computer but also to any social network (free feature) and/or private server e.g. FTP, Dropbox, etc (paid feature) without ever leaving the UE4 Editor.

We will be extending ODIN Capture to also support capture at runtime (feature release ETA = TBD) for those who may wish to include such features to their QA team, beta testers, and/or end-users/players.

You can find some of our early mockups for the UI for ODIN Capture's Post-capture Editor here:
(Mockup A)
(Mockup B)

We have an early prototype of this running in UE4 now however we are making a couple more tweaks before we release some images and perhaps a video showcasing our 1st pass of the feature which will be included in our 0.2 release

ODIN Tracker will also include ODIN Tasks, Time, and QA which you can find more information on above under Product Summary.

But with that all being said,
I'll take another look at our product summary to perhaps make some edits so that it is more informative for you guys right off the bat

Can I buy just the capture tool and install just the capture tool and only the capture tool without any other thing?

Yes that is partially correct as stated here:

Estimated Price

Basic Functionality = FREE

Advanced Functionality = $39.95 to $59.95 USD per-user (one-time payment for all updates included in the 1.x release)

Enterprise Functionality = TBD

Premium Support = TBD

NOTE: We are considering to offer a modular pricing model which will allow the end-user to purchase selected advanced functionality of ODIN Tracker without having to purchase the lot for $39.95 to $59.95 USD

For example, end-users may only wish to purchase the advanced functionality for the ODIN Tasks & Capture modules but have no need for the ODIN Time or QA modules.

You will still be required to have ODIN Tracker Plugin which is the Core product (free) and you would just purchase the ODIN Tracker Advanced Functionality as an Add-on.

However,
Some functionality of ODIN Capture, Tasks, etc. will be included free of charge when you install the ODIN Tracker Plugin, so a purchase may not be necessary for you.

Also we may consider releasing a 2nd very lightweight plugin for those who are only interested in the ODIN Capture functionality and are concerned about their overall storage footprint for the plugin but I will honestly say that currently that is an unlikely move for us.

Though feel free to express your thoughts on the matter further by raising a suggestion ticket on our JIRA Service Desk and we will keep you in the loop if and when we ever decide to release a 2nd very lightweight plugin strictly for ODIN Capture functionality

--NOTE--

As of writing this,
The ODIN Tracker Plugin folder with source code & uncompiled 3rd-party dependencies is 352MB however with compression, compiled binaries, and general optimizations (removal of debug, dev, etc. related files) we should see that footprint lowered to around 80-50mb.

To add to my above messages,
If Allar, Sadaleus, or anyone else for that matter is interested in having a more in-depth discussion on any particular ODIN Tracker related topic or who would just like to see bleeding edge updates on ODIN Tracker than I'd advise you to come join in on the discussion via our official Discord server: http://discord.odintracker.io

Discord is a free unified communication platform that combines the best of TeamSpeak3, Skype & Slack capabilities into one sleek package designed specifically for games.

P.S. We've just posted some additional resources such as pictures & PDFs for UI mockups, etc. that are awaiting your feedback

Last edited by BenjaminDSmithy; 04-09-2016 at 11:07 AM.
Reason: Added a little bit of info explaining what Discord is

That is great to here that we got featured on Community Spotlight! I'm the Programmer for ODIN Tracker. You all may or may not recognize me from my work on CRYENGINE and my two books on it. Just Want to update you all on progress made last week.

1. Made ODIN Tracker run on all Supported Development Platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux)
2. Added more image filter functions including Blur, Crop, and Highlight.
3. Made the entire Image Editing API fully exposed to blueprint.
4. Added ability to select any Widget in the Editor with the mouse to capture a screenshot of. A Green Border is added to the Widget you are about to capture to help you see which widget is going to be captured.

This plugin is coming along greatly and really improves your overall workflow by keeping everything inside the editor so you never have to leave. More updates coming soon in the next week or so.

Will ODIN tracker's capture ability enable users to record gameplay from within the editor? If so do you think it would be possible to make mixed reality videos with it?

That's a rather interesting suggestion and while it is something we have never considered it may be possible to accomplish by syncing up the position of a stationary camera in the real world with one in UE4 3D space and splicing those 2 video outputs to get the desired result in the video above.

However things become WAY MORE COMPLICATED when it comes to tracking and keeping in sync both the UE4 and real world camera during movement and it would require the end-user have very specific tracking hardware + some technical expertise on our part to pull off such a feature.

With that all being said,
ODIN Tracker's capture component will not only support the capture of UE4 windows but also the game viewport itself (image, video, and GIFs) and we will also be adding support for those same features on standalone runtime builds of a project built and compiled in UE4 (ODIN Tracker bundled) at a later date.

Lasyavez if you wouldn't mind raising a request on our JIRA Service Desk for this suggestion, you can then stay in-the-loop on when this feature may be introduced into a future release of ODIN Tracker

@benjamin.smith I tried submitting the suggestion but the link is dead. This is specifically important to VR game marketing as it gives viewers the best idea of what VR and the game is.

TLDR: To achieve mixed reality we need to be able to tag objects to foreground and background layers then capture those to separate layers onto separate video files to later composite real life camera footage in between.

If you were to Parent a motion controller to a camera, like the htc vive motion controllers to an actual camera as well as the motion controller component to a camera then getting the 3d space data is trivial what I would think is the hard part since I dont know enough about how the engine handles rendering is setting certain objects to render and record on separate files.

How this is achieved in Unity is they parent a vertical plane to an HMD (HTC Vive). Then they set any object in front of that plane to a foreground layer where it is recorded to a file with only foreground objects. The objects behind the hmd are also recorded to there own file. Once both files are recorded all is needed is for both of those files to be dropped into a compositor such as After Effects, drop in the video file from the real camera, and then layer the foreground > real camera > background.

It might be a challenge to sync up the 3 video files but that could be solved on the individual developers end (not you guys) by creating some type of slate mechanism such as clapping your hands together on the real life camera and in doing that you hit the trigger on one of the motion controllers which would spawn a visible object in the foreground and background areas of the game recording.

@benjamin.smith I tried submitting the suggestion but the link is dead. This is specifically important to VR game marketing as it gives viewers the best idea of what VR and the game is.

My apologies for that,
I have since been informed that the service was down for the following reasons which have now been resolved:

"In the process of upgrading our infrastructure certain processes were moved last night to more flexible hardware however the process for ensuring the services were up failed to start due to a bug. This has now been fixed and you should be able to access everything again" - Our IT Guy

As for your feature request,
I would have to get back to you on that one as it is a very niche feature request which would most likely require a decent amount of R&D work to complete.

Lucky for you I personally own an Oculus DK1 and DK2 which I can test out some ideas on how to implement this feature however I do not own the Oculus Consumer Model nor the HTC Vive and the same can be said for my colleagues. We will most likely take a more serious look at this feature request later this year once we have the latest Oculus and/or HTC Vive to play with.

In the meantime,
Would you mind submitting your request to our JIRA Service Desk now that the service is back online?

Announcement

Just giving you all an update as I know we've been rather quiet of late...

We've decided to scrap our current launch roadmap in exchange for rolling out our 0.2 release direct to the masses via a release on the UE4 Marketplace starting with the free functionality

That means we will most likely be scrapping some of our upcoming closed alpha and beta release test candidates as well since we feel that while ODIN Tracker may be a little rough around the edges currently, our target market is developers at the end of the day so we're sure you will be understanding.

We also have a fancy new logo in the works + other media related content which you should hear more about around the 25th of May

Hey all. Just wanted to pop in and say that there will be a slight delay with the release of version 0.2. The past few days have been very busy for me and I haven't had the time to add the finishing touches to 0.2. All I can say is that we will be releasing 0.2 in the next few days. If all goes well, we might be able to release today! Thank you for your patience and understanding . Here is a treat to get you excited for 0.2....

A small preview of what's to come

While we run our final compatibility and stabilizability tests I just wanted to show you all a small preview of what to expect from ODIN Tracker v0.2

We will be creating a more polished promotional product video + 5 screenshots for our UE4 Marketplace Submission to go alongside social media tailored content after the media frenzy surrounding E3 calms down a bit.

Additionally,
Our new logo is 98% done with a variety of configurations being made for use with our various buttons, documentation hub (docs.odintracker.io), website, etc which we will also be providing as part of a PressKit at some point in the future.

Very cool idea! Awesome work! I tried the alpha version and i liked it. Very comfortable and useful! Last year we started to make a full length animation in unreal engine because the engine possibilities fits to the style of the animation and gives high productivity. Right now this projects is frozen, but soon it should continue. It would be very useful to have a built in project manager or something like this plugin for big projects in unreal! And its capturing system will be useful for developers. Good luck guys! I will keep my eye on this project!

Production Update

Just letting you all know that we are still alive and kicking

In recent weeks we've had to slow down production on ODIN Tracker for awhile as we shifted our focus temporarily on freelance work to pay the bills but not to worry we will be getting things back into gear come Monday next week to continue development on the v0.2 release.

Furthermore,
We would like to say a big THANK YOU to all those who had a chance to QA test our early-access pre-releases for v0.2

After talking to @SE_JonF on Discord regarding ODIN Tracker's upcoming features I ended up compiling a new more complete list of the upcoming features in releases v0.2 and v0.3 which I will now share a sneak peek with you all now:

Xbox One "Record that" type feature which constantly records your main UE4 Editor session & saves to temp memory for a default of 15-20sec (time options provided but the higher the number = more resource intensive)

Release update

UPDATE: there have been some minor delays due to Richard (a colleague and the lead programmer) dealing with moving houses which has taken longer than expected.

While we're happy to release the final 0.2 build with bugs, there were a few which we considered showstoppers in regards to breaking core functionality of the ODIN:Capture module and making a lot of it useless (we can't have that can we?).

So here's the list of bug fixes since our last announcement with a few more fixes to come tomorrow than release hopefully before the weekend.

Settings:
- [MISSING] all end-user accessible settings (a lot of these are half-baked as of writing this and unlikely to make it into 0.2, expect to see at least some finished by 0.3)

Feedback & Support:
- [MISSING] Feedback form non-functional (planned for 0.2_rc2), in the meantime please use Discord and/or feedback@odintracker.io
- [MISSING] Support form not included as currently planned as a paid feature with SLA support offered that will be bundled with purchases of the ODIN:Pro Bundle (1.0 price = $75 USD & current Alpha planned price = $50 USD)

Last edited by BenjaminDSmithy; 02-09-2017 at 11:29 AM.
Reason: Added known bugs and missing features for current build.

That is really nice. I would have used this instead of using the snippet tool and paint to show some of my work on my dev blog. Also I would be interested to see how well the video capture works as well. Keep up the good work

This is one of the best plugins out for UE4!
I highly Recommend this plugin for anybody dealing with blueprints!

Glad you liked @The_Mec_666
We've put a lot of time, sweat, and tears into making our first major release as polished and feature packed as we can.
Future updates should come more frequently and we have some pretty cool surprises in store for you all in v0.3 and v0.4

Originally Posted by MosFett

That is really nice. I would have used this instead of using the snippet tool and paint to show some of my work on my dev blog. Also I would be interested to see how well the video capture works as well. Keep up the good work

@MosFett We plan to offer a transparent background capture option for Blueprint, Material, etc Editors which might come in handy for future blog posts of yours (also works great with PDFs / PowerPoints).

As for Video Capture, you can expect to be seeing the 1st pass of that feature as soon as v0.3 (part of paid portion of ODIN:Capture add-on).

In the meantime feel free to test out ODIN Tracker and the ODIN:Capture part of the plugin as some elements are and will remain FREE!